Know your place.
We've heard it from parents, maybe teachers. Interesting to note that in this context "place" has nothing to do with physical space and everything to do with social behavior.
We all need our own places. In THIS context I mean both physical AND social.
I have my places.
I have my dining room and the table in it. Around this big slab of pine many great conversations have taken place with my children and good friends. Lots of food has been served at gatherings where we invite friends over and cook Indian food and talk and laugh. At the right angle you can see scores written from when we have played cards or Boggle or other games. Pine is good that way. It holds on to things. I may refinish this table in the Spring, but it is staying in this house because it has become an important place to me.
The den. This is mostly my husband's space that we designed and decorated when he was bishop, so that he could have people over to talk. But I like that it has that kind of history. It has become, since that time, the refuge. When the kids come in they are a little more careful to keep it clean and to even speak a little lower. We write in here. We sing and record in here. We read and gather our thoughts.
There are other spaces away from my home that I crave as sanctuaries (North Carolina sandy beaches, the Duomo in Florence, Italy, the temple). Physical space matters.
Sacred groves, if you will.
Then social places. I can lead. I can follow. I can sit. I can do. I can be the chameleon I sometimes need to be. That little voice tells me,
Know your place. And I try to respond appropriately by following instinct.
Places matter. Stand in holy ones, but help people out of ones that are not. What good is a
place if it is never shared?
